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Random Thoughts & Musings

With a Fresh Lemon Scent

what's behind door number three?

mood: amused

music: Natalie Cole -- Miss You Like Crazy

jcobleigh, dasubergeek, L., and I were up in Montreal for the last three days, generally enjoying ourselves and wandering around in the cold and slush. On the way up (we drove from New Jersey), we stopped at the last rest area in the U.S. before we crossed the U.S.-Canada border. L. and I went to use the ladies' room, which had three stalls. The first stall had a blocked toilet, the second stall had no toilet paper, and the third, while it had both a functioning toilet and ample toilet paper, had a door that didn't lock closed. :)

That's because they were all helpfully labelled as "Aire de Repos 200m" so by the time jcobleigh read it, realised it was French, asked me to translate it, and realised that they weren't advertising the rejuvenating qualities of their oxygen, the 200m (that's 1 furlong, 10 chains or 40 rods for you poor people still stuck on the Imperial system of distance measurement) had long since flown past and we could see the Cartier Bridge coming up.

That, and being in French Canada, the bathrooms would have been toilettes à la Turque... :-P

As in: holes set in the top tier of a raised platform? Does it "flush"? With or without "stall" doors? No toilet paper? If yes on the paper, is it rough and brown and not meant to be put into the hole (but rather into a little covered basket nearby)? No splashing-with-the-left-hand business, right?

I used to carry a small roll in my backpack in KZ. The worst bathrooms ever were the womens' bathrooms at the local university. No door, a wall on only one side. Raised platform with hole. :-P doesn't even begin to convey the experience. It was literally the stuff of nightmares. BLEEECCCCCH. And they charged you for the pleasure of using the facilities! Total rip-off and an assault on human indignity! :)

It was a shock to me that the culture could be so advanced and totally reasonable in some ways, and so totally "backward" and unappealing in this way.